June 13, 2005

On Wednesday June 8, 2005 the team of local NGO activists and representatives of foreign NGOs operating in Kazakhstan visited the Majilis of the Parliament in Astana and attended in the pressroom the plenary session where the Draft Laws on Foreign and International NGOs and relative amendments were considered by the Majilis at the first reading.

The consideration was not finished on that day and was scheduled to be finished next Wednesday on June 15, 2005.

The following people attended the plenary session:
1. Ninel Fokina (Almaty Helsinki Committee)
2. Zhemis Turmagambetova (Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law)
3. Anna Breus (Association of NGOs of Kostanay Oblast')
4. Bayan Akhmetzhanova (Association of NGO of the city of Astana)
5. Kostantin Kovtunets (Decenta, NGO from Pavlodar)
6. Vera Tkachenko (Penal Reform International)
7. Vsevolod Ovcharenko (International Center for Not-for-Profit Law)
8. Bibisara Beysenbayeva (IFES)

Such group visit to the plenary session proved to be very effective. Knowing about audience in the Pressroom the deputies were very talkative and did not finish consideration, so NGOs won one week. The NGO representatives had the opportunity to comment the situation and consideration of the Draft Laws to the Mass Media also sitting in the pressroom and counter-argue the false statements made by the deputies.

Also during the day NGO representatives had several meetings with deputies where they also tried to add arguments to those deputies opposing the Draft Laws.

Consideration of Draft Laws by Majilis and talks with the deputies proved that the problems NGO Society faced today had a real background. During discussions with the Parliament deputies and listening to the Government officials it became clear that they all have the perception that NGO Sector is non-transparent to the public in Kazakhstan. Even those deputies who oppose the Draft Laws, they try to protect the NGO Sector in Kazakhstan just because they believe that it should exist, but they are unaware of what NGOs do and how such activity is financed.

The current situation is a challenge to Civil Society in Kazakhstan, since even if the President bans the Draft Laws today, another Draft Law(s) will appear tomorrow and will be even worse than current ones.

The Civil Society should make certain efforts and became more open and transparent to the public, and respectively to the Government in Kazakhstan. Otherwise the Government will establish its vision of transparency, which is inconsistent with existence of large and independent NGO Sector.

Source: ICNL